When I murmured in a sullen tone, he looked at me with a restless expression.

Holding back my bursting smile, I turned my head elsewhere. I was amused at this unusual reversal of what had been going on normally. Has he been teasing me to enjoy this delight every day?

When I saw him getting embarrassed, I wanted to tease him a little more, but I looked at him, trying to subdue my smile. If I went a little further, I felt he would be really put on the spot.

“Then, can you give me a letter other than that, Your Majesty?”

“Um? Another letter? Which one? ”

“Just any letter. In fact, I was a bit sad that you stopped writing me letters. You often sent me letters before we got married, right?”

“Oh, I see. I will write you a letter every day from now on.”

He answered, making an impish smile at me when I pouted as if I was disappointed with him. Then he lightly grabbed my hand and gently kissed its back, saying, “Let’s go. I’m sure everyone here is at a loss, watching us.”

“Sure, Your Majesty.”

“By the way, can you walk around like this? I hear you have to be very careful in the early stage of pregnancy.”

“Pardon? You’re worried too much. If that’s true, there would be so few babies born safely in this world.”

“Who knows? So, just fall in my arms. Let me hold you in my arms and take you safely to the palace.”

“No, I don’t want it. I was already so embarrassed last time, so that’s enough for me.”

Squinting at him slightly, I hurriedly got out of the restaurant before he picked me up. I heard him calling me urgently from behind, while the officials of the palace affairs department bowed to me hurriedly. A smile came to my lips in spite of myself.

< There are a few more episodes that show how much the emperor loved the empress. The most outstanding one among them was one involving my sister, Diana.

Wherever they went, the emperor couple produced lots of tidbits to display their deep affection for each other. In fact, I always thought that it was the emperor who was a devoted husband, but the empress also loved him deeply. Of course, it was right that the emperor usually made a fuss over trifling things first. For example, it would be far from dangerous for her to walk from the Central Palace to her palace.

Nonetheless, he allegedly walked after her desperately for fear she might fall on her way to the palace, but she tried to run away from him for fear she might be embarrassed again. To be honest, it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. How could she say she was not embarrassed by him chasing her while she felt embarrassed when he held her in his arms and took her to their bedroom even in the broad daylight?

Well, they might call me a bad son if I said this, but I think they are too shameless. Normally they don’t pretend to, but they are surely, given such episodes.

…Oh my God, perhaps that’s why my sister Diana shows the same character as the empress.

-From Adrian’s Diary>

***

The room was shrouded in deep darkness. On a deep night when everyone was resting, held in the arms of the Goddess of Sleep, a man woke up and leaned against the bed with one hand pressing his forehead. As if he was in trouble, he frowned his straight brows deeply.

How much time passed? The man, who had been sitting in that position for a long time, slowly raised his head and looked at the empty seat next to him. His navy blue eyes were shining in the dark place where there was no window.

“Tia.”

His spouse, the empress, was not with him now. He sighed after calling her name, who he missed so dearly. It’s been a month since she left.

His sleepless nights that had been going on for a while finally seemed to have reached its peak today. He felt his eyes, which were dried out from mounting fatigue, painful, but he could not go to sleep.

‘When can I get out of this sleepless night?’

Rublis sighed once again and rubbed his stinging temple firmly. After receiving her letter that asked for a little more time for her to decide, he replied a few days ago that she could do so, pretending he was alright. He regretted, however, that he had granted her request. He wished he had not let her go there from the beginning.

When he thought about what happened a month ago, he frowned unconsciously. Was it the problem that he accepted Marquis Monique’s request readily at the thought of winning Tia’s heart by all means?

According to his promise made before the marriage, his lovely wife Tia was the empress and at the same time the successor of the Monique family, so he had no excuse to turn down her earnest request to visit the estate with her father. Moreover, she was visiting there for the first time in almost ten years.

‘Well, if Tia enjoys her visit, I’m good.’ He muttered like a sigh, then pulled the string.

Shortly afterwards, a servant on standby outside came in and asked politely, “Your Majesty, I’m ready to accept your order.”

“Bring some candles here, and…”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Rublis thought about going to the office for a moment, but he gave up and shook his hand at the servant. He already brought lots of work home last night, and if he moved at this time, he would cause unnecessary burden to people around him, he thought.

“That’s enough. Just bring the light.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

After bowing deeply, the servant lit the candles in the emperor’s spacious room. He smiled bitterly at the scarlet lights that began to fill the room. Before he got married to Tia, he had been accustomed to living alone in the empty room. But with Tia away for such a long time, he found it very hard to go to sleep because he got used to the comfort and relaxation that came with Tia.

After a long sigh, he got back to work, but closed the documents after reading them with blurred eyes for some time. Because he couldn’t sleep properly, his eyes were so dried out that he couldn’t read anything. He even had a headache.

As he could not stand it anymore, he removed the papers, then lay back in bed and closed his eyes. Without her, the bed, which he didn’t know was so big, looked so spacious and empty today.

‘What is she doing now?’ Is she sleepless like me because she misses me so much? Or is she sleeping peacefully as usual?’

When he recalled Tia’s sleeping face, he seemed to feel relaxed a bit after being on edge all day long. He loved all of her, but what he loved most was her sleeping in his arms. Whenever she slept peacefully as if she forgot all her bitter memories of the past, he often got a lump in his throat.

Because he felt so good about looking at Tia sleeping, he woke up a little earlier than he and looked at her for a while. Then he couldn’t control his desire, so he kissed her pink lips. How beautiful her golden eyes were when they were revealed byher fluttering eyelashes!

When he thought of her soft body and her sweet lips, he suddenly felt he was having an erection all of a sudden. He broke into a smile at his erection that came along even when he was exhausted from work.

It’s been eight years since he married her. In the meantime they had a baby girl who was a carbon copy of Tia, but whenever he recalled her, he had an erection in spite of himself.

After several years of marriage most men lived with their spouses through thick and thin, high and low, not in love, but he was obviously not in their league. Given his behavior patterns until now, it was evident that he could not stop loving her.

‘I think it was right that I made such an oath back then.’

Without his oath that day, it was evident that it would be very difficult for him to overcome the situation, let alone her who was always suspicious and scared of him. To be honest, it was a miracle that he could get by without going crazy with jealousy at that time.